Fine Brothers Entertainment is facing multiple accusations – including sexism and promoting toxic workplace culture. The company is known for their popular reaction videos on their REACT YouTube channel which has over 20 million subscribers and has featured popular celebrities and influencers such as Tyler Oakley, PewDiePie and Sarah Hyland.
The Business Insider interviewed 13 former employees – who all shared instances where they were either victims or had witnessed sexism within Fine Brothers Entertainment. Ex-employees also shared toxic workplace experiences. For example, they shared that during a meeting to pitch video ideas on Zayn Malik’s ‘PillowTalk’ song, their boss had asked them questions such as ‘Tell me about your experiences in bed with your partner?’. When they declined to answer, their boss was infuriated with their lack of participation.
Moreover, Julie Montoya – a former producer at Fine Bros Entertainment – shared how she faced inappropriate comments during meetings. She highlighted one incident where the co-founder of Fine Bros Entertainment – Rafi Fine – asked her what kind of underwear she was wearing.
This is not the first time the popular YouTube channel has been called out on their toxic work environment: in January 2021, the Business Insider interviewed 26 former Fine Brothers Entertainment employees who shared multiple instances where they had experienced or witnessed racism while working for the YouTube channel. Brooklin Fenton – a former reactor turned employee – shared that she had been told to feature a lighter skin reactor on the left side of YouTube thumbnails – which viewers tend to see first – because it was more “appealing to fans”.
Kennedy Zimet – a former employee – also shared that even though the channel was creating videos on the importance of Black Lives Matter and increasing their diversity by hiring people of color, she had still faced “racially charged death threats and harassment” from YouTube viewers with no support from the management.
I can’t stay silent about this. pic.twitter.com/PJjEJ03Mfw
— Kennedy Zimet (@KennedyZimet) June 10, 2020
Moreover, the founders – Benny and Rafi Fine – have also engaged in black face in the past, which came to public attention in 2020 and received massive backlash. The founders apologized for their actions in a statement posted to Twitter and Instagram:
Fine Bros Entertainment have yet to comment on the March 2021 allegations shared by Business Insider.